Smaller phone and laptop makers brace for years of memory scarcity

The memory chip market has split into two worlds. In one, major producers are funneling capacity into lucrative high-bandwidth memory for AI data centers. In the other, smaller phone and laptop manufacturers are fighting over the scraps, facing a shortage that industry executives say could persist well into 2028. Companies like Fairphone, Framework, and Jolla, brands that built loyal followings on repairability and openness, are now grappling with a crisis that has nothing to do with product design and everything to do with allocation. The problem isn’t just that memory costs more. It’s that they can’t reliably get it at all. The AI vacuum The root cause is straightforward. Samsung, SK Hynix, and Micron, the three companies that dominate global memory production, have redirected manufacturing resources toward high-bandwidth memory (HBM) chips used in AI data centers. Those chips carry significantly higher margins than the conventional DRAM and NAND that go into entry-level smartphones and personal computers. For smaller electronics brands, memory can account for up to 60% of manufacturing costs. TrendForce projects conventional DRAM contract prices will climb 13-18% in the current ...